Even though I was not destined for my mastery in teaching Secondary students, I am grateful for all the things that happened to me in my work experiences. From 2014 until the present, I taught and teaching young learners. In the ESL company that I am working for almost two years, they offer a new way of teaching position which is focusing on students who are 0 English ability and at a very young age. I experienced the youngest was 3 years old.
As their teacher, I can observe that these students are dependent on their parents. They used to have online classes sitting next to their parents. They use to imitate whatever said by the teacher and some were not talking at all. I feel bad ending the lesson then the student doesn't learn something from me. That's why as a teacher, it is my peak goal to make my student comfortable in the class, produce a letter sound, learn a new word and of course, understand the lesson taught on that specific day.
If you are going to scroll through my posts, they were mixed activities to different ages and levels of understanding. So today, It is good news especially to our mommy and daddy's out there to know some fun activities that we can conduct at home to practice our child or children's speech. This time, we will focus on the toddlers. I always feel great if these amazing toddlers were taught by their ages because it is a good starter to them and this can develop their speaking and comprehension skills.
Before we will go deeper on the set of activities. Let us know first why and how it means to have a speech delay.
Hearing is one of the best sources that our child understands and recognizes something that is why it has a big role in learning. Blaming our children for having a hearing issue is not the key to tell that he or she is having a speech delay. There is a process for that to experts who can guide and help your child's health issue specifically in hearing. For example, you and your child are in the learning room and you are trying to let him read the words and he says it in a different way. Like by saying "table" and he or she said "mat". As a parent, we should maintain our patience to our children. We are the ones as their foundation to keep learning. Let's guide them in a proper way to expect good progress from them. It's a good feeling to see how that specific child changes from 0 English to something he or she has a capacity for.
I m so excited to share now the tips, suggestions, and activities to make more learning wonderful.
Let's begin with:
As a parent, you have to select books that are meant to their levels. It will be a great idea to read with them. We cannot just give the books and let them play from them. Children at this age are very eager to learn and discover something new. Read slowly the words so let them recognize the phonics sound and words. Show them the pictures and talk about them. I will assure you that they will love it if you will read with facial expressions, posture, and gestures from the story you are reading with them.
Hey moms and dads this is your time to shine to share your great voice with your children but if you don't have the good one, never mind about it, your child will not focus on that. Our goal here is to motivate and encourage the children to sing a song. This is a fun way too to make it more interesting as we all know that there are children who are musically inclined. I find this very effective in conducting my class. After greeting time with the student and asking how is she or he? Song time is the next part. If I have regular students who kept coming back to the class, there's a possibility that we are repeating the songs until they finally master them. The following are the best nursery rhymes to sing:
Click this link for Nursery Rhymes with lyrics: Song Sources
- Hello song
- Bingo
- One little finger
- Twinkle twinkle, little star
- Row, Row, Row Your Boat
- Humpty Dumpty
- Wheels On The Bus
- Old Mac Donald Had A Farm
- One, Two, Three, Four, Five
- Incy, Wincy Spider
EXPANDING VOCABULARY
We should not limit the word we are trying to deliver to the children. Let us say for example. You and your daughter or son are out of the house because you both decided to visit the park. Then your child wanted to play and "slide". To expand it, you can say "Go to the slide" or "I want to slide". This kind of strategy will give a higher chance to expand his or her words and adapt them whenever she or he wanted to say a sentence. Always remember that children love to imitate what we are saying.
Letting your child play outside and explore, she or he can see lots of things to learn at. By watching the beauty of nature, people, and the sounds from the outside. This gives more freedom for them to have a creative imagination on their minds. Point out some living or non-living things and challenge your child to name what it is. This is a fun idea because you are letting them think out of the box and guide them as well of what exactly those objects or things are.
Let's bear in our minds that the great way teaching toddlers are from hands-on activities. Things that they actually feel, taste, and see. This can add more meaning to their way of learning and letting them interact can possibly enhance their speaking skills.